


An Enchanted Adventure

by Tuiteyfruity



Category: Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Genre: Adventure, Canon Compliant, Dragons, Fantasy, Gen, Giants, Magic, Not self insert, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Post-Canon, Wizards, canon characters appear sporatically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-27 03:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17759240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tuiteyfruity/pseuds/Tuiteyfruity
Summary: Giants and Dragons and Wizards oh my! A fun for all ages fantasy adventure set in the world of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles!The Princess Kendria has gotten no offers of marriage so drastic measures are taken! A giant is hired to kidnap Kendria but things don't go as planned.





	An Enchanted Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> I love the world of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles so I wanted to play around in it! So I have made a short story that takes place Post-Canon with characters of my own creation! These are not self-inserts, I tried to be as close to canon spirit as possible! 
> 
> You will still see canon characters.

The Princess Kendria screamed at the top of her lungs. A highly precise scream. A tediously practiced scream. She screamed and screamed and screamed. For help, for mercy, as the giant carried her out of town. The townsfolk ran away in panic all around, as the giant swung his a club fashioned from a tree trunk at the buildings enthusiastically. The giant had her in a massive fist, and she did her best to free herself, but it was futile, and it wasn’t worth messing up her hair, which her step-mother had taken her to get done extra fancy before going out.

 ** _Her stepmother!_**  Of course! This wasn’t exactly expected, but it wasn’t unexpected. Something in the middle. Suspected! Kendria, 18 years young, was the eldest princess and needed to be married off first. Yet not one kingdom offered up a suitable match. Not a single kindom offered an unsuitable match. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. Kendria’s mother had been a sorceress, and the still unkillable rumor was that she had enchanted King Martellus into loving her. Her father assured her this was not true, telling her that true love cant come in a bottle, and her had woken Princess Analise from a magical sleep with true love’s kiss. The fact of the matter was, everyone believed she was a sorceress too.

Well, love spell or not, she was gone. When Kendria was 4, Analise messed up a spell and all that was left was a pile of ashes. And her father got re-married, to a wicked stepmother, Seffieyana.

At least, she joined to the Wicked StepMother Club when she married Martellus. She certainly was stern to Kendria. Well, marginally more stern to Kendria compared to her own children, who she wasn’t very stern with. Not very wicked at all, no matter how much she tried to look the part. Her annual review with the club must have been coming up, and she needed to commit an evil act, and a grand one.

Hiring a giant to kidnap your stepdaughter and rampage a town certainly qualified. Kendria should have known something was up when she was told to put on a particularly austentatious gown and be prettied up just to go to the market, to get a special pot that Seffieyana just HAD to have NOW. She also wondered if the club would consider the good intentions in their audit. Now that she was captured by a giant a reward of her hand in marriage and half the kingdom as a dowry would go to whoever rescued her. Even if no princes or princesses showed up (likely discouraged by their parents who believed the rumors) there would be knights seeking glory and a chance to raise their station in life to that of royalty.

At least it was more exciting than hanging around the castle babysitting her half-siblings.

“We are outside of town now, princess,” said the giant, speaking softly and kindly. His voice was still loud, but not as low as she expected. 

Kendria stopped screaming and opened her eyes. The giant strapped his club to his belt and her in both hands, holding her up to his face. He was very wrinkly, and had a great bushy grey beard that had streaks of white, the hair on his head was very thin. His nose was so large it almost touched her. She stood, a bit unsteady, and looked down. She was two and half, maybe three stories above the ground? Her head started to spin so she looked back into the dark eyes of the giant and curtsied. “Greetings sir giant! I beg of you, do not eat me” she recited.

“I would not think of eating someone so fair as thyself! You are my prize and are coming to live with me. ” he proclaimed, smiling. His teeth were white, but quite uneven and chipped.

“I thank you for your mercy, sir giant, I am Princess Kendria, may I have the honor of knowing who I am now the prisoner of?”

“You are the prisoner of the great and fearsome Dobbilan! Do not try to escape or you shall be severely punished.” he bellowed, but his voice croaked a bit, and he turned his face away to cough.

“My apologies,” he said placing her on his shoulder. “That should be more comfortable. I hope you didn’t scream yourself hoarse like I seem to have done’

Kendria sat down, and held onto some of his beard as he resumed walking through the countryside. He was clearly avoiding anymore populated areas, even lone farmhouses. Though a few wagons and people on horses did cross their path and run away screaming.

“Of course not, I am well trained,” she said proudly, glad to finished with the formalities. Even if she had never needed to use the skill, her classes on the proper way to scream when being kidnapped by a monster were certainly a great outlet for frustrations.

Dobbilan coughed again, “I can see that you are, I myself am dreadfully out of practice”. He was certainly more worn out than she would have expected for such an easy pillaging job. And even if he wasn’t actually angry, he sounded irritated, perpetually. Maybe that’s just how he always sounds, no matter what, because he seemed to be in good spirits. 

“Oh!”said Kendria, remembering where she had heard the name Dobbilan before. “I heard you had retired!” A few years back another kingdom’s princess had been captured by a giant. The giant attended the rescue celebration/wedding and boasted loudly about being trained by the famous Dobbilan.

“I owed your father a favor,” he said, thoughtfully, “however I didn’t expect him to take so long to call it in.”

“My father!?” she exclaimed, “but I was certain my stepmother had arranged this!”

Dobbilan nodded, “His Majesty did mention this was not his own idea. But I thought it was a good one. I don’t get out much anymore. We don’t even get as many thieves as we used to. They used to come like clockwork, once or twice every few months. Guess they assume that since I no longer pillage, I do not accumulate treasure.”

“But,”

“Sure, I don’t accumulate it at the same rate, but the other giants pay me a cut of their gains for the mentoring. It’s slower, but I’m running out of space in the storage rooms, that has never happened before. But enough of my troubles, we’re almost there just over this hill, you should see, ah, look!”

He stopped and  guestured, they were on at the top of a hill and at the top of the next was a castle, the sun was setting behind them and it cast stunning oranges across the fields and the castle walls “home sweet home!”

With a speed and vigor he had not demonstrated, Dobbilian ran down the hill, nearly flew. Kendria wrapped her hands in his beard to keep from falling as the wind blew tears from her eyes.

And then they stopped. The door in front of them was big and made of a warm red wood. But only just big enough so that Dobbilan didn’t have to bend over to get through.

The inside was a bit disappointing. It was a normal castle. Castles were already extremely large, with tall ceilings that easily could accommodate a giant. The only difference was this castle had larger doorways.

He headed straight for the kitchen and set her down on the table. There were two place settings that were giant sized, and on a smaller table, a setting that was her size.

“If you excuse me, princess, I worked up both a sweat and appetite from today. I must wash up before supper. Feel free to explore,” and he left her standing on the table with no way to get down, all alone.

But not for long, as Kendria heard cursing as a giantess burst through a door accompanied by a cloud of smoke. She was just as tall as Dobbilan, but rounder, and instead of a big bushy beard she had a bushy head of brown hair. She wore a simple practical outfit and an apron. she was splattered with flour and pink frosting which she brushed off and then noticed Kendria and her frustration turned to glee as she approached the table.

“You must be princess Kendria! Welcome to our humble home, I am Ballimore. I hope my husband wasn’t too rough bringing you here,” she said as she leaned down to get a better look at the princess.

“Oh aren’t you a cute one!” she exclaimed and took two fingers to rub at Kendria’s cheeks like a doting grandmother. Her round, happy, booming voice shook through Kendria, who was only steadied by the giantess’s fingers. “Pleased to meet you ma’am” Kendria said as best she could through mushed cheeks, reaching up to hold each finger in her hands, pulling gently. This close she could see the grey roots of the giant’s hair.

“Oh, sorry dear, we don’t get many visitors these days and you just forget how adorable humans are,” she removed her fingers form Kendria’s face.

“I can’t imagine you get never visitors!” said Kendria, “this place is so very nice.”

Ballimore beamed, “Thank you dear, and we do get visitors, relatives mostly, not so much humans let alone royals.”

“Sorry to rush off but I simply must finish dinner-” she said when a loud banging rang through the castle.

“Oh dear that wasn’t the door was it?”

Kendria shrugged, she didn’t know what the sound was.

Dobbilan appeared in the door to the hallway, he was half dressed, just pants, and his hair beard was still wet, “always at the most inconvenient of moments,” he griped before rushing off.

Ballimore huffed and fussed with her apron. “Of all the times for him to arrive the day he said he would he picks today!”

“Relatives?” asked Kendria, “is that a bad thing?” worried that these relatives might want to eat her.

Ballimore sat down at the table and put her head in her hands.

“Just after Dobbilan left to fetch you my Cauldron of Plenty started to malfunction. It wasn’t an issue when it was just the three of us for dinner since I could simply use a normal pot”

“You do not have enough food for more than two giants?” kendria was shocked.

“Of course I do, but not ready to eat! And my Nephew, Mettarid, has 12 heads and I suspect 12 stomachs. Without the cauldron working he will eat us out of house and home!”

“What exactly is a Cauldron of Plenty?” Kendria had never heard of one.

Ballimore brightened, “It’s only my prized possession! It makes an almost infinite amount of whatever I desire!”

“That’s incredible!” said Kendria, “how does it know what you want and how to make it?”

“Oh, once i’ve cooked a dish it remembers it forever! After that you just add water and heat, or a base ingredient such as flour,” when she started wailing again “but everything is coming out burnt or raw!”

“May I see it?” said Kendria.

Ballimore raised her eyebrows, “knowledgeable about enchanted cookware are we?”

“Would you like to find out?” Kendria said, but Ballimore already held out her hand for Kendria to sit on and was taken into the kitchen.

“You certainly can’t make it any worse I suppose,”

/thanks for the vote of confidence/ Kendria nearly said outloud, but was stopped by the wave of hot smells that slammed into her. She pulled out a handkerchief to tie around her face and her eyes started to water.

The smell of burnt food would have been overpowering if not for the competing smells of some of the grandest puddings, pies and cakes covering every unused counter space, including a five tiered cake with bright pink frosting and swans dancing on top. There was a large ornate pot on the stove which was simmering, adding a savory meat smell to the air. A much larger, jet black cauldron hung over the massive, unlit, fireplace in the back of the kitchen, and the burnt smell was emanating from it.

“Surely you didnt make all these without the cauldron? You said it was broken?” asked Kendria.

“I didn’t,” Ballimore sighed “for some reason the blasted thing makes desserts now. Never did before.”

“Why?”

“So many questions, princess,” said Ballimore, finding some unoccupied space to let the princess down. Unoccupied, but still covered in flour and other ingredients. “That’s a good trait to have, one should to  take things at face value in this world, especially princesses, though they are the ones who usually do.”

“The cauldron,” she continued, “When I first got it, I made the mistake of allowing Dobbilan the use of it. Amazing how he can smell if a human was in a room for merely a moment but cant tell salt from sugar.”

Kendria laughed and Ballimore smiled.

“Anyways, he tried to make mint custard, and for some reason, sour cream and onion ice cream!”

“Sour cream and onion ice cream? You’re joking right?”

“No” Ballimore cringed at the thought, “and not only did he fail! He burnt it all! After that it wouldn’t make anything else in terms of deserts, not matter what I tried to teach it.”

“Well, it’s making deserts now,” Kendria waved at everything in the kitchen.

“And not any sort of proper food. I cant figure out why,” said the giantess, distressed.

“Maybe I can, put me next to it,” Kendria instructed, and Ballimore held her near the cauldron.

“It shouldn’t be hot, I doused it with cold water just a moment ago.”

The cauldron was unmistakably magical, Kendria could feel it. She could also feel something was wrong. The spell was, cracked? Twisted? She didn’t have the proper knowledge to assess it. But she did think she could fix it.

Placing both hands on the cauldron, Kendria whispered a few words, a simple magic boosting spell. The cauldron shook and Kendria was blasted with a jolt of magic that sent her flying from Ballimore’s hand only to be caught in the other.

“My dear! What happened!?” Ballimore exclaimed.

Kendria rubbed her face. That shouldn’t have happened. The cauldron rejected her spell, angrily. It was like it didn’t her. Or didn’t like her using magic on it.

“Ballimore, I need you to touch the cauldron while I try again,” she said.

“Are you sure you want to give it another go?”

“Yes, I think it just needs a friend to hold it’s hand. It is, not accustomed to anyone else using it.”

Ballimore furrowed her brow, “It works for dragons, I’ve lent it to several of them before.”

That was not surprising. Dragons were some of the most magical of beasts, and were immune to most enchantments that were not designed with dragons specifically in mind. The cauldron’s feature to reject unfamiliar people clearly didn’t work with dragons.

“Well, I am not a dragon,” said Kendria, placing her hands on the cauldron again, this time next to Ballimore’s free hand.

She took a few deep breaths and repeated the spell. The cauldron shuddered, but the magic started to flow more steadily around it. No more jumps or hiccups or twists.

“Try to cook something” she said.

—

The air still smelled smokey, but it was replaced by new smells of a dinner table piled high with a rainbow of fried vegetables, shepherd’s pie, turkey with all the fixings, bowls of mashed potatoes underneath the largest and longest cow femurs, the marrow baked to perfection and crispy with garlic and chives. It was more than enough to make the burnt smell a mere afterthought.

And Ballimore had not been exaggerating, her nephew ate more than half of the food, and even made headway into the unfortunate amount of desserts.

Kendria tried to focus on conversation and her own plate, and not stare at the 12 identical heads that rested upon the shoulders of the largest giant she had ever seen. He was easily a full story taller than Dobbilan. When he spoke, each head would say one word, and it always followed a pattern. It didn’t circle the heads, but once it got to the a certain head, the flow would go the opposite direction. And even which head that was changed, it would always be the one to the right of the last one to change the direction.

“A princess, uncle? I thought you had retired!” was the first thing he said upon seeing Kendria.

“This one is special,” said Dobbilan.

“She certainly is!” said Ballimore, “She repaired my Cauldron of Plenty. Imagine, without her you would have starved to night.”

“A princess who can fix magic cauldrons, how extraordinary!” said Mettarid.

“My, my mother was a sorceress so,” Kendria swallowed another bite of food, “well I mean, after she died I kinda, bribed the court magician to teach me some magic. It makes me feel closer to her.”

“It was also very practical of you!” he said, before taking another bone and scooping out all the marrow onto a still steaming slice of olive bread. He then cut up the bread into twelve equal pieces, and eating the pieces two at a time, one in each hand, each head getting a piece. 

As the meal was winding down and everyone, except Mettarid, was on their last cup of evening tea, Dobbilan asked Kendria to sing and dance for them.

This was expected, as long as she was his prisoner, she was do be something to show off used to entertain her captors and guests. It had been difficult to resist eating so much that she would jeopardize her ability to perform, but her years of training weren’t for nothing.

Her songs nearly put all three giants to sleep. Guess those stories were true too. But she made sure to end her set with something lively that the company could clap along to.

All too soon it was time for bed. Mettarid bit them goodbye, and dragged a cart piled with pastries with him out the door. Dobbilan carried Kendria to her new sleeping quarters.

“Apologies for the mess, Princess,” he said as he placed her at the door. The room was definitely made for captive princesses, it was much too small for him to go inside, however he could reach in with his long arms. And had evidently been using the room as extra storage for treasure. “I said we haven’t had any thieves in a while, I’ve had to get creative”

The room was still oddly proportioned, the furniture slightly oversized. Dobbilan encouraged her to look out the window. She had a supreme view of the courtyard gardens, even at night she could tell it was full of wondrous flowers and neatly cut hedges, she told Dobbilan how impressed she was.

“I have to do something will all of my spare time,” he said. “There is a washroom through that door,” he pointed, “and a closet through that one.”

“Thanks,” said Kendria, “I did not expect such lavish accommodations.”

Dobbilan grinned, “there is a reason many were sad to hear of my retirement. I was not known for being sloppy or uncaring.”

And he left her in the room. Kendria washed up and went to the closet. Upon opening it she found gowns and dresses that were exactly her size, but that wasn’t what she needed right now. She closed the door, waited a second, and opened it again to find an array of nightgowns. She selected a satin pearl one and admired it in the full length mirror. Then she felt a wave of exhaustion and she lay on the bed to reflect upon her day.

It was ever so exciting, being the captive of a giant. And she was sad that it may not last very long. Her time here depended on how fast someone came to rescue her, and were successful. Could be tomorrow for all she knew, she has screamed very loudly so the news would travel fast. This was the biggest adventure of her life, and it was all a ploy to get her married. It kinda soured it, but she wouldn’t let it. She was going to make the best of it.

She fell asleep, still wearing her jewelry. If someone were to rescue her at night, she still had to look her best.

The princess slept well that night, for the most part, as well as someone wearing a crown, necklace, and earrings could. Perhaps that is why, about an hour before dawn, she woke up to the sound of someone moving in her room.

She sat up and looked around and she met eyes with the intruder who was hiding in the shadows over by a pile of treasure.

Whoever, or whatever, they were, they had snuck in. They had not boldly proclaimed their intent to save the princess from the fearsome giant or die trying. No. This was no rescuer.

This was a thief.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!!


End file.
